


SEASHELLS

by MaevesChild



Category: Mass Effect
Genre: Mass Effect 3 spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-12
Updated: 2017-04-12
Packaged: 2018-10-18 04:23:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 461
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10609209
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MaevesChild/pseuds/MaevesChild
Summary: Super short flash fiction written for the Ars technica fan fiction contest.





	

Mordin’s fingers moved impossibly fast as he overrode the STG security measures. He didn’t look back over his shoulder at the empty elevator shaft. Shepard could be trusted. She was going to finish all this nonsense with the Reapers, come what may. He muttered the refrain of his favorite song under his breath.

He would do his part. A good legacy. Had to be him.

He tapped his fingers one last time and it was done. He felt the floor vibrate under his feet as the Shroud shook back to life, his genophage cure spreading out into the Tuchanka atmosphere. He imagined it probably looked like snow. He continued to sing and ignored the heat of the flames he knew were burning all around him.

“I am the very model of a….” An explosion rocked the tower, knocking Mordin off his feet. He flew hard against the console, searing pain washing over him. He clamped his eyes shut.

Shepard once said humans had their lives flash before their eyes before they died. He didn’t think salarians were the same, but he could remember intentionally instead. Memories blocked out the pain; his photographic recall overrode everything else.

His years in STG, the genophage rework, the clinic on Omega, meeting Shepard. Tiny details, memories of late nights, the smell of antiseptic, equations blinking on a datapad into the first light of day. The spiral helix of DNA.

He was laying prone on the floor. At least he thought he was. He could hear the cracks of flame but he felt cold suddenly. Not a good sign. He dug deeper.

Sur’Kesh. It had been too long since he’d been really home. The hot and humid air, the broad leaved foliage. Tall grey trunks of trees with their umbrellas of leaves shading the tiny plants below from the brilliant sunlight. Excessive ultraviolet radiation not good for delicate plants. _Areaceae Roystonea_ was the closest ones they had on Shepard’s home world to his favorite.

Another explosion. Choking smoke.

Mordin imagined the ocean. He saw a vid of Earth’s oceans and he felt a pang that he’d never get to see them. Long expanses of white sand made of crushed limestone and shells. Maybe other minerals. Would like to know. Salt water that would sting his skin, but he’d still let those warm waves lap against his feet. For science, naturally.

There was a screeching sound, metal on metal. The floor tilted. He felt like he was falling. He couldn’t feel his legs. Probably a good thing. Hurt to breathe. Maybe shouldn’t bother.

_Nautilus pompilius_. He saw a picture of one once. Big shell. Spirals in spirals, mathematically perfect. Inside, glossy iridescence, like a prism splitting sunlight.

He wondered what tests he should run on them first.


End file.
